Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Muffins (video)
A crispy, sky-high muffin top, full of chocolate chips, soft and buttery on the inside – a perfect way to start your morning!
I love enjoying a good muffin with a nice, warm cup of coffee, especially now that the fall weather is setting in. My favorite part of a muffin is the muffin top, that’s why I love bakery style muffins. Breaking off that large, crispy muffin top and taking that first bite is heaven to me. When I was a kid, I would only eat the tops of my muffins and it used to drive my mother crazy because she though it was so wasteful. But, the bottom just couldn’t compare to the top. This reminds me of that Seinfeld episode back in the 90’s where Elaine had the idea of a store just selling muffin tops. I know I totally dated myself with the last reference, but I hope some of you know what I’m talking about or else I’m just going to feel old and geeky.
Anyway, let’s talk baking science. The key to the perfect bakery style muffin is to have just enough leavening agents (baking soda and baking powder) to create that puffy dome when baking, but not so much that you can taste it. Baking at an initial high temperature will cause the air bubbles in the batter to expand even further. This will help give the muffin a soft and fluffy texture and also create the high rise. Using enough fats and liquids like butter, eggs, and milk, will make the muffins moist and rich. You also need enough volume of batter to fill the tins to the top. Lastly, and this is a tip in general for making soft and tender muffins, mix the wet with the dry ingredients until JUST combined. Over mixing will result in hockey pucks and you don’t want that. Everything else is a matter of preference in taste.
I used mini chocolate chips for this recipe because they disperse more evenly throughout, but you can use regular chocolate chips or chocolate chunks if you prefer. I also added some salt to enhance all the flavors. I used to shy away from salt, but I learned from watching Master Chef that it’s useful for more than just adding a savory taste, it also potentiates all the other flavors. I added 1 tablespoon of vanilla because I like vanilla in all my baked goods. It’s just one of those flavors that goes well with most things, and of course you need some sugar. I only used 1 cup of sugar for this recipe because the chocolate chips are already sweet. So, in a nutshell, that’s pretty much how I came up with the recipe.
Enjoy these fabulous muffins with your morning coffee and/or as an afternoon snack. They’re moist, fluffy, rich in flavor, loaded with sweet chocolate chips, and they’re so delicious, I promise you’ll want to devour the whole thing, not just the tops.
Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 20 min
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 12
- Category: breakfast, snack
- Method: bake
- Cuisine: American
Description
The BEST chocolate chip muffin recipe – soft, moist, fluffy, loaded with chocolate chips, and a perfect crispy sky-high muffin top!
Ingredients
- 2 & ½ cups (315g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp (13g) baking powder
- 1 tsp (5g) baking soda
- ½ tsp (2.5g) salt
- ½ cup (114g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup (250ml) buttermilk (see notes for substitutions*)
- 1 tbsp (15ml) vanilla extract
- 1 & ½ cups (275g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F. Spray a 12 cup muffin tray with non-stick cooking spray or line with paper liners.
- In a large bowl, toss together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, sugar, eggs, milk and vanilla. Slowly add to the dry ingredients. Gently fold together until JUST combined.
- Divide the batter into the 12 muffin cups and bake at 425°F for 5 minutes. Then reduce the oven temperature to 375°F and continue to bake for another 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Do not overbake or the muffins will be dry. Let cool for about 5-10 minutes and enjoy warm.
Notes
*You can substitute the buttermilk with any kind of milk. Even non-dairy milk like almond or rice milk works. Simply mix it with 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice to make 1 cup.
Muffins taste best the day of, but can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
For mini muffins; bake for 10-12 minutes at 375F only.
You might also like my Bakery Style Blueberry Streusel Muffins, Bakery Style Banana Nut Muffins, and Double Chocolate Muffins. Click here to see all muffin recipes.
I was looking for a high-top muffin recipe and this recipe worked out great that way. Going to freeze some for my kids’ school lunches.
It might be a good idea to give the specs for baking with a convection oven as well as non-convection. My oven can do either, but I went with convection this time and lowered the temp by 25 degrees; however, they still got a bit too dark on the tops, and some of the chips on top got a little burnt. I made notes to use regular bake for next time but might save someone else from having too-dark muffin tops. 🙂
Thank you, Jess. I appreciate your feedback. Yes, convection can be tricky. I find it great for browning, but sometimes I find it can over bake or dry thing out. What I personally do is bake non-convection (better for moisture) then if it’s still pale on top near the end of bake time, convert to convection the last few minutes to get that golden brown on top. That’s my little trick.
These muffins came out delicious! Only switch I made was gluten free flour. Thank you for sharing your recipe.Â
My batter was very dry I had to add almost another cup of milk…where did I go wrong?
Was the butter melted? Perhaps you accidentally added an extra cup of flour. It’s very strange that it was that dry and needed another whole cup of milk.
The butter was only partially melted. I’ll melt it properly next time and hopefully that will help!
Delicious!! The chocolate chips were dispersed all throughout the muffins .. SO good!
Hello! Just wondering if I can substitute the unsalted butter for plant-based butter? What about plant-based margarine? Would it be the same amount?
Thanks!
Yes, you can sub for plant-based butter or margarine and yes, it would be the same amount. Enjoy!
So fluffy and moist !! A keeper for shore .
Easy and really tasty! Everyone loved it!Â
Can we use the same base recipe for other muffin variety? Or do you have a base recipe we could use?Â
Thank you
Hi Jessica,
Thank you and yes, you can use this muffin recipe as a base and add other flavorings and mix-ins for many different variety of muffins. Enjoy!
Thank you for the recipe. They were so tasty.
The consistency of these muffins is great but EVERY choc chip fell to the bottom. I’ve never had this before when baking.
Interesting…did you toss the chocolate chips with the dry ingredients before combining or fold them in at the end?
Do you have calorie info on bakery style chocolate chip muffins
yes, it’s at the bottom of the recipe card.
My husband and I love this recipe! Been making these muffins for a couple years and they’re delicious every time. Thank you for sharing!
I’m so happy to hear that and you’re very welcome!
Can i make batter night before and bake in am
No, this recipe is better baked right away.